That was also because they used a terrible distribution of Linux. If they'd just slapped stock Ubuntu on there, people would have been happier with it.

Don't for a second think that the ASUS product designers loved the crappy Xandros on the early eeePC's.

Using Ubuntu had 2 key problems at that point:
1: No access to repositories so the ASUS developers could not commit changes needed for the Netbook to run acceptably well.
2: Ubuntu does not test much before release, meaning any update at any time could have created a tsunami of eeePC recalls, for example a busted WIFI driver would have been a disaster.